Deutsch-Litauisches Forum e.V.: “Justified concerns”

Dr. Joachim TauberSandra König/Lüneburg

Dr. Tauber, following a 2016 ubiquitous assembly of Deutsch-Litauisches Forum Gernot Erler, a German Coordinator for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and a Eastern Partnership Countries, spoke on a subject “Russia and a West: From disunion to a European assent sequence underneath threat”. Why is this subject quite critical for German-Lithuanian relations?

The lapse to Europe, that Lithuania gifted after a fall of a Soviet Union in a early 1990s, is being thrown starkly into doubt by a stream domestic march taken by Russian President Putin, for instance in a Ukraine crisis. There are fit deliberations in a Baltic States on a border to that European confidence structures can take outcome in sequence to forestall Russia holding a identical proceed as it has in Ukraine. Against this credentials it was critical to me to entice Mr. Erler to a lecture. It is really critical for Lithuania how distant a European march common by a infancy of a race and a values are upheld by petrify confidence policy: There contingency be no second-class confidence orders within a European Union.

So a European Union has a special shortcoming towards Lithuania as a member state?

Yes, and Mr. Erler left no doubt about that in his lecture. He done it transparent that precisely a heading European states of Germany and France contingency always keep in mind that with a perspective to Russia a easterly European countries face other threats entirely. Germany’s preference to take partial in a 2017 NATO deployment in Lithuania and to lead a corps of infantry drawn from a European allies is so all a some-more critical – even if it is initial and inaugural a mystic gesture. Mr. Erler also emphasized that conflicts with Russia can usually be solved in a context of a domestic process.

Can Russia also be a partner for Lithuania?

Of march there are many people in Lithuania who contend that we can't cut ourselves off from a neighbour Russia and that honesty is important. However, it contingency be transparent that Russia shall not meddle in Lithuania’s inner affairs. The problem of a Russian media campaign, that we also observe in Germany and Western Europe, is distant some-more widespread in a Baltic States. Lots of Lithuanians watch Russian radio and hence mostly see promotion dished adult as entertainment, in appealing formats such as series, for example. The Deutsch-Litauisches Forum aims to negate this promotion with a work. At a same time we wish to beget some-more bargain in Germany too that Lithuanian concerns are fit given stream Russian policy.

Article source: https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/peace-security/deutsch-litauisches-forum-ev-justified-concerns?utm_source=rss